Yunzhongzi (Chinese: 雲中子; pinyin: Yúnzhōngzǐ; lit. 'Master in Cloud') is a character from the famed classic Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi. [1][2]
Yunzhongzi is a renowned immortal of the Jade Column Cave atop Mount South End. After the sinister Daji had taken her grasp over King Zhou of Shang, Yunzhongzi was the first immortal to see the injustice from above the clouds. After Yunzhongzi realized that this was none other than the Thousand-Year Vixen, he exclaimed the words "If she is not eliminated, great disaster will befall the Red Dust! I must prevent this from happening!" Following this event, Yunzhongzi presented himself before King Zhou. After the king had asked for Yunzhongzi's home, Yunzhongzi responded by saying that he is from water--heart of cloud, mind of fluidity. Thus following this point, Yunzhongzi would engage in a great reformative conversation with the king in the hopes that he would be rid of Daji and employ the Taoist way to his kingdom. Before Yunzhongzi left the king, he handed him his wooden sword, a sword that would gradually kill Daji through its latent spiritual power instilled by Yunzhongzi.[3][4]
Yunzhongzi would be seen once again before the Grand Duke of the West, Ji Chang. After a special child had been found in a mysterious tomb following a very rare and sudden lightning storm, Yunzhongzi would once again appear. When Yunzhongzi had held the small baby in his arms after receiving consent, he said the words "My Grand Duke. Please let me take this child to Mount South End to raise and educate. When you come back in seven years, I will return him to you." Thus holding the baby in his hands, he parts the clouds and returns to the skies, determined to instill the Taoist ways into this future savior of the new dynasty.[5]
Yunzhongzi named the baby Leizhenzi and immediately took him as his disciple, raising and training him on a mountain. To help King Wu overthrow the Shang Dynasty, Yunzhongzi planted two divine apricots on the mountain and had Leizhenzi eat them. As a result, Leizhenzi grew a pair of wings, imbued with the power of wind and thunder, allowing him to fly and engage in aerial combat. Yunzhongzi also gave Leizhenzi a golden cudgel and trained him in its use. Later, he sent his disciple down the mountain to rescue his father, Ji Chang, from the five passes at Lintong Pass, but forbade Leizhenzi from leaving with him, insisting that he return to the mountain for further cultivation and wait for the Zhou Dynasty's rise before officially debuting. It was Yunxhongzi who laid an ambush at Jue Long Ridge and used the Divine Fire Pillar to burn Grand Master Wen Zhong to death.[6][7]
